Washington Whispers
Jackie's Desperate Plea: Don't Publish
It's been nearly 43 years since Lee Harvey Oswald fired a bullet into John F. Kennedy's head, and, amazingly, we're still learning new things about the shocking presidential assassination in Dallas. Like: Richard Nixon's first thought was, "It must have been one of the nuts," who pulled the trigger. Hubert Humphrey, who rushed to the White House that fateful Nov. 22, 1963, afternoon, found irony in a sign outside JFK's office over two Texas Rangers pistols that read, "The Texas Peacemakers." And this from actor Paul Newman: Upon hearing the news, "I drove right off the road onto the sidewalk, just missing a couple of trees."
But what is most riveting in a rare cache of letters to The Day Kennedy Was Shot author Jim Bishop that his widow is selling at auction this month is one from JFK's widow, Jackie. On Sept. 17, 1964, she sent an almost tearful plea that he scrap the project. "I cannot bear to think of seeing-or of seeing advertised-a book with that name and subject," she wrote. The four-page, handwritten letter, briefly mentioned in the prolific author's book, finds Jackie even worried about John-John and Caroline seeing Oswald magazine covers "staring up at you." It could sell for $7,000 when it goes up for sale at Alexander Autograph's online auction (alexautographs.com) October 14 and 15. Or more. Bishop's archive at St. Bonaventure University calls the letter highly desirable-and wants it.
Mr. Deaniac Says Bubba Was Right
Onetime 2004 presidential front-runner Howard Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, visited with us last week and made an unusual confession about why his White House bid soured: He failed to grow up during the campaign. "My biggest mistake was something that Bill Clinton actually told me, but it was too late down the track to do it," he says. "That I had to make a conversion from an insurgent candidate to a candidate who acted like a president. People won't elect you president if they don't see you as a president. They saw me as an insurgent, they loved me, I was able to push the party into standing up for itself again, but I never made the conversion into what people expected of a president of the United States, and I needed to make that conversion around September [2003], and I didn't do it. Part of it was we were too successful too fast. I was leading the polls in September, so the argument was, well, you should continue to do what you're doing. But that wasn't sufficient."
Bush to Foley: Do You Clip In?
Former Rep. Mark Foley, the Florida Republican at the center of the page E-mail scandal, shared a passion for bicycling with President Bush. In fact, it was Bush's obsession with spokes and pedals that pushed Foley into the sport. "He's got me way into biking," the now disgraced Foley once told us. The Bush-Foley bike chats inspired Foley to buy three cycles, which he used to ride on Washington's network of paths. And it didn't end there. When Bush asked him if he "clipped in," Foley went out and got those special cleated shoes that click into pedals.
Next Time, He'll Try Ted's Salmon
Fans-and there are lots of them-of Ted's Montana Grill might want to try their Bison Burger on the medium-well side next time they visit the restaurant chain started by Ted Turner of CNN fame. Y'all see, Gen.John Abizaid, head of Central Command, had one the same night he fell ill with food poisoning, finishing the night at the hospital during a recent visit to Washington. The Pentagon thinks the burger did it, but the Atlanta-based chain says the fault lies elsewhere.
Booking a 2008 White House Bid
It's time to clear the shelves for the wave of books coming from likely 2008 presidential candidates. Up first? We hear that Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will come out with From Hope to Higher Ground in January. Hope? Yup, he was born in the same town as Bill Clinton. But associates say the higher ground isn't the White House. That's a reference to Hurricane Katrina and his ideas on how the country can regain a sense of optimism in the wake of terrorism and natural disasters.
Not Your Everyday Book Fair Groupie
Here's something you don't see every day: a prominent cabinet member standing in line for an hour outside to collect an author's autograph. But that's exactly what Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez did this month during the National Book Festival on the Mall. His target was historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who, when she looked up after penning her John Hancock, asked for Gutierrez's in return. The secretary tells us: "Attending the National Book Festival was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Washington. It was great to be among book lovers, families, and great authors, and I'm already looking forward to next year's festival."
A Job for Life-Now That's Security
The erudite U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer always seemed to have a higher calling. He was voted most likely to succeed in high school; studied at Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard; clerked for the high court and counseled the Senate Judiciary Committee; was a law school professor and appeals court judge. But that higher calling was driven not by philosophy but job security. Breyer says that when his father was on his deathbed, his last words to his son were "Stay on the payroll!" Since then, the justice says, "I've always had tenure in jobs."
A Tissue With That Tear-Jerker
When Karyn Frist, wife of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, gives friends a copy of Love You, Daddy Boy, her heartwarming collection of daughters honoring their dads, she also includes a specially packaged stack of hankies. "I promise you," she tells us, "man or woman, after reading one chapter, their eyes well up with tears." Lots of tears: She had 1,000 packets made up.
With Suzi Parker and Liz Halloran
This story appears in the October 16, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.